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Postscript: Government has the wrong focus

With straight faces both the Premier and her language minister solemnly declared that they have nothing against Anglos.

It’s kind of surprising they didn’t bring out the old chestnut about us being “best treated minority” in the world.

This so-called new and improved Bill 101 is troubling in so many ways.

The Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be subject to the new law.

The preamble to the charter would be changed to include the right to live and work in French and that rights must be exercised in keeping with those sacred dispositions.

Now that, essentially, would create two classes of citizens before the law.

The Parti Quebecois is calling on citizens to act as sentries in the defence of French: in other words, to report violations wherever they occur, like an immigrant depanneur clerk struggling in French.

The PQ wants to create an army of vigilantes encouraged by a democratically-elected government that is supposed to represent all of the citizens.

Our community, at great cost, agreed that perhaps that was the deal. The ones who stayed would live with language legislation in exchange for peace on the unity front.

Perhaps we were wrong.

Perhaps it will never be enough.

Blame francophone families

If Montreal itself has become less francophone, don’t blame us: blame the young families who have scurried out to Blainville and Repentigny in search of lower taxes and a better standard of living for their children

It is a Gordian knot. How do you satisfy the language insecurities of the francophone majority while at the same time not trampling on the rights of Quebec’s English speaking community?

You start by recognizing that we are not the enemy

The more we are made to feel unwelcome, the more we will think about leaving.

Sadly, too many have already made that heart-wrenching decision, taking their talent, their money, their taxes, and leaving behind their friends and families and the homes they knew.

We now look to the Liberals and the CAQ to kill this odious legislation and back some common sense.

We will be watching and we will remember.

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Photos

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, flanked by Language Minister Diane De Courcy, responds to reporters' questions at the legislature in Quebec City on Dec. 5, 2012. (Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS)